


Runaways

by juggieheadcoopers



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, One Shot, Running Away, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-28 23:06:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10841349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juggieheadcoopers/pseuds/juggieheadcoopers
Summary: After his father is arrested and his mother tells him that he can't come to Toledo to stay with her, Jughead decides to go to Florida after all - but will he go alone?





	Runaways

**10:53p.m**

_“Betty, it’s me. I know you deserve more than this rushed, less than eloquent explanation in the back alley of a bus station - I mean, what we’ve gone through together surely warrants a twenty page exposé on what being with you has meant to me or at least some overly dramatic farewell in the parking lot like they do repeatedly in romantic comedies. But this hastily prepared phone call is all I’m able to come up with at the moment, most notably due to the fact that if I saw you in person right now I’d never be able to get on that bus. And I really need to go. Get out of Riverdale and away from the Blossoms and my father’s sins and - well, everything. Just know that I’m not leaving because of you, Betty Cooper. You’ve made these last few months of torturous hell some of the best months of my life. I’ll never forget that. And I’ll never forget how much I - I - I have to go. Bye, Bets.”_

**5:55a.m**

Jughead clutched his beat-up hiking backpack that hung over his shoulder tightly with his gloveless hand, the chilly morning air flushing his cheeks and nose a pale pink that made him look like a young boy again, braving the cold just to play in the snow for a few hours until his mother called him in for dinner. Taking a step into the crowd of bus-goers, he stopped himself short before joining the passengers as they filed their way into their seats, glancing back at the bus depot’s entrance as if waiting for something -or someone- that wasn’t coming.

“Are you getting on or not, kid?” the bus driver asked from the driver’s seat, a tired expression crossing his face as he glanced down at Jughead standing by the open doorway looking unsure of himself as he teetered back and forth from one foot to the other. “The bus leaves the station in five minutes with or without you so I’d make up your mind pretty quick if I were you.” 

“I’m coming,” Jughead assured him, although he made no move to prove his point and join the rest of the crowd on the bus.

“You might want to tell your feet that,” the bus driver pointed out. “They look pretty glued to the pavement there.” 

“Just give me a few more minutes,” Jughead mumbled, adjusting his grip on the bag with one hand and sliding his ticket into the back pocket of his jeans with the other. “I have to get on that bus.”

“Well you’ve just wasted a full minute and a half in your failed attempt to convince us both of that statement, so whatever epiphany you think you’re going to have just standing there, I’d think of something that could make it happen a little quicker otherwise you’re stuck in this town forever,” the driver warned him, leaning back in his seat and resting his head back on the headrest behind him. “Or at least until the next bus leaves.” 

“Come on, Jughead,” he mumbled to himself, the snow beginning to fall lightly on his beanie and the street in front of him. “Just get on the bus. There’s nothing keeping you here.” 

“Running away to escape the sins of your father, huh?”

Jughead whirled around at the sound of the familiar voice that had made his heart skip a beat every time he heard it over the past few months, his pulse quickening at the sight of a bundled up Betty Cooper making her way over to him, her pale baby blue scarf wrapped snuggly around her neck and her gray peacoat buttoned all the way up to the tip of the collar.

“That’s a little ‘Huckleberry Finn’ don’t you think?”

“No, if I were following in the footsteps of Huck Finn, I would have faked my own death to escape my family,” Jughead pointed out, his gaze focused intently on the thick letters written on the side of the bus in front of them. “And we already had one teenager try that in this town - didn’t turn out so well remember?” 

“Juggie,” Betty breathed, stepping around him so that he was forced to meet her gaze. ”Florida?”

“Yeah, well I hear that listening to the waves and feeling the ocean breeze on your skin does wonders for writer’s block,” Jughead shrugged, his expression hard and distant as he struggled to keep his heart from fluttering the way it always did when he was in her presence. “And considering I’m not writing my novel on Jason Blossom’s murder anymore, I figured a little seaside town in Florida was as good a place for a little inspiration and a fresh start.” 

“Alone?” Betty’s voice was small, almost heartbreakingly so, and it took every bit of strength Jughead had left in him to resist scooping her up into his arms and holding onto her forever. 

“I’ve been alone for the better part of my life, Bets,” Jughead reminded her, taking a step away from her as he continued to keep his distance. “My mother, Jellybean, now my father - they’ve all left me at some point, one way or another. And I know you were only doing what you thought was right to protect me, but even my friends, who I thought I could trust more than anyone, lied to me. People leave and let you down, it’s the way my life has always gone and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”

Jughead felt his eyes begin to prickle with tears and he quickly stepped around Betty, wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand and moving to place one foot on the first step leading up to the bus.

“But none of that matters anymore because I’m leaving that all behind. Goodbye Riverdale, goodbye Jughead Jones,” Jughead muttered, turning his back to Betty and grabbing onto the door with his free hand. “And it all starts as soon as I step onto that bus.” 

“No,” Betty snapped, her voice ringing out amidst the empty bus station and falling snow blanketing the scene in front of them, causing Jughead to stop dead in his tracks, his foot sliding off the bus and back onto the pavement as he spun back around to face her. 

“No?”

“You don’t get to just leave like that,” Betty told him, her eyes dancing wildly as the rage and longing and fear of losing something she had grown to crave more than oxygen over the past few months, began to take over her expression. “Not after everything we’ve been through together. Not after you climbed into my bedroom that day we went to see Polly and you kissed me. Not after everyday since then where you’ve been the one thing keeping me sane through this whole ordeal. Not after you made me fall in love with you!”

The words echoed off the walls of the empty bus depot, lingering in the air for a moment before hitting Jughead hard and fast, causing his heart to stop beating and his eyes to widen in disbelief as he slowly lifted his head to look at her.

“What did you say?”

“I didn’t mean for it to come out like that,” Betty apologized, her hand flying up to cover her mouth in disbelief as a beautiful pink color began to creep up onto her cheeks at the unexpected declaration. “I’m sorry.”

“You love me?” Jughead breathed, the words so quiet and unlike his own voice that he was sure that it was someone else who had spoken them. 

“Yeah, Jug,” Betty assured him, her lips creeping up into a shy smile as she finally said the words that had been lingering in her thoughts for weeks, out loud. “I love you.” 

In that moment, amidst the falling snow and the rumbling of the bus awaiting the last of its passengers, Jughead knew without a shadow of a doubt that the next move he made would solidify the fate of their relationship for the rest of time. So without another word, Jughead dropped his backpack onto the snow-covered pavement and took Betty’s face in his hands, her skin cool and smooth and perfect to the touch, and kissed her until all the words and feelings and thoughts that he couldn’t say right then, didn’t need to be said out loud anymore. With that one kiss, Betty got the answer she had been hoping for all along - something more than what could have been expressed through pretty soliloquies or well-thought-out speeches. And that was enough for her.

“Time’s up, kid,” the bus driver announced from the driver’s seat, causing Betty and Jughead to abruptly pull back from their embrace to meet his gaze. “Are you getting on or not?”

“I’m coming with you,” Betty told him, already pushing her way towards the steps leading up to the bus, nearly slipping on the patch of ice on the road and reaching forward to hold onto the side of the vehicle to regain her balance. 

“What? Betty, no I can’t ask you to leave everything you’ve known your entire life for me,” Jughead told her, reaching out to take her by the elbow and pulling her gently back towards him. “And I can’t ask you to leave Polly, especially not now.”

“She’s the one who suggested I leave with you,” Betty admitted, pointing to the luggage off to the side of the bus that Jughead hadn’t noticed until that moment, revealing that this was what she had been planning all along. 

“You didn’t come here to say goodbye,” Jughead guessed, realization washing over his face as he took in the bus ticket sticking out of her pocket and everything started to make sense to him. “You came here to run away with me.”

“Polly and Jason never got their chance to get out of Riverdale together,” Betty reminded him, taking his wind-bitten hands in hers and stepping forward to close the gap between them. “But maybe we actually have a chance to be happy, away from all the secrets and lies and drama, Jug. I know that as long as I’m with you, I can be happy anywhere. So let’s go be happy.” 

“Bets, are you sure?” Jughead wanted to know, his brows drawing together in concern as he glanced up at the annoyed bus driver with uncertainty. “This isn’t a short sleuthing trip across town, this is for good. I don’t plan on coming back for awhile. Maybe not at all.” 

“I’m sure that I love you,” Betty assured him, her hands gently grazing his cool skin with the tips of her fingers before resting them comfortably on his cheeks. “And that’s all that matters to me right now.” 

He knew that they were going to be deemed certifiably insane by the better half of Riverdale for thinking that two teenagers could survive running away with little to no money and no plan for the future mapped out in front of them, but in that moment, Jughead didn’t care. He didn’t care about the future, or what anyone else said about them, just as long as Betty Cooper was by his side every step of the way.

“Let’s go then,” Jughead announced, taking her hand in his and nodding for her to follow him onto the bus before he changed his mind. 

“So that’s what he was waiting for,” the driver noticed, smiling knowingly up at Betty as she passed him on her way to one of the free seats in the back of the bus. “Can’t say I blame you, boy. I would have waited for a girl like her too when I was your age. Never got so lucky, I’m afraid.” 

“I’ve waited for her longer than you think,” Jughead admitted, smiling back at Betty as she settled her way onto the plush seating and placed her own backpack on her lap in front of her. “I just hope that my loving her doesn’t ruin her life. I don’t think I could live with myself if that were the case.”

“That’s a chance you’re going to have to take, son,” the driver informed him, glancing up to meet Jughead’s gaze with somber eyes. “Otherwise, you’ll never forgive yourself for letting someone like her slip through your fingers. Trust me, I know all too well.” 

Jughead nodded at the bus driver as if he understood, smiling at him gratefully before making his way down the aisle to join the girl he was going to start a new life with. He knew that he was running away from a lot of demons that Riverdale possessed for him, but he also knew that he was running to something - something better and brighter and with Betty. And that was what finally put his mind at ease as the doors shut behind them and the driver pulled out of the depot as they made their way down the road, and towards new beginnings.


End file.
